The National Academy of Inventors named William Wuest, Emory professor of chemistry, to its 2025 class of Senior Members.
The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) named William Wuest, Emory professor of chemistry, to its 2025 class of Senior Members, comprised of 162 emerging inventors from NAI member institutions. Collectively, they are named inventors on over 1,200 U.S. patents.
"To see this program grow year over year is a testament to the dedication our member institutions have to fostering innovation on their campuses and supporting their inventive staff and faculty," says Paul R. Sanberg, NAI president. "This year's class comes from a multitude of impressive fields and research backgrounds from across the world. We applaud their pursuit of commercialization to ensure their groundbreaking technologies can make a difference by tackling the world's most pressing issues, improving quality of life across society and advancing the economy."
Wuest, who is also a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator, researches the modification of natural products through total synthesis in an effort to develop innovative, pathogen-specific therapeutics. He founded the startup company NovaLyse Biosolutions to develop next-generation antiseptics and is the holder of nine patents on antibiotic scaffolds.
He also founded the Emory Biotech Consulting Club, which partners with the Office of Technology Transfer to engage graduate students in early-stage consulting experiences with startup companies at the University.
A few of Wuest's many awards and honors include the National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators Research Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) Infectious Diseases Young Investigator Award and the 2020 David. W. Robertson Award from the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry. He has also been selected as an Alan Leshner Public Engagement Fellow by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Scialog Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and Faculty Leadership Fellow by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research at Emory.
Wuest and others in the 2025 class will be celebrated during the Senior Member Induction Ceremony at the NAI's annual conference, set for June 23-26 in Atlanta. The induction ceremony is one of the cornerstones of the conference, exemplifying the spirit of creativity and discovery that drives the global inventor community.
The NAI is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, as well as governmental and nonprofit research institutes, with more than 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.
